Fur Flies In Fashion

Seeing Red Over The Pros And Cons Of Furs

February 24, 1991|By JILL KEECH Staff Writer

Jane Sealey of Newport News says she isn't about to retire her fur coats, and she won't let others dictate that she should.

Tim Sullivan of the Fur Farm Animal Welfare Coalition in St. Paul, Minn., says even if cages on mink farms were as big as football fields, that wouldn't pacify his opponents. "They are against all animal use."

Irene Smith of Newport News says since receiving a mink stole years ago, she's learned about the way animals are "brutally killed" for their fur. "I'm not going to try to sell the stole to anyone," she says. "I'm going to burn it."

Why are these people seeing red? Because of the issue pitting those who consider it unjust to kill animals for their fur and those who say fur for fashion is a legitimate business.

Animal rights activists, consumers and fur industry representatives are locked in a battle that in some parts of the country has built to an emotional paint-splattering pitch.

Both camps in this argument are well-organized, armed to the teeth with literature and adept at fielding each other's attacks. "There is no answer right off the bat. They will encounter arguments pro and con," says David Jones, a philosophy professor who teaches ethics at The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg. "Emotions run high on both sides. It's a very personal thing. Each person will have to figure it out for himself."

Although the animal rights movement also opposes animal use for sport, entertainment and medical research, the following stories deal only with the case for and against fur in fashion.